Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are increasingly fuelling domestic violence, according to frontline Welsh police officers who have to deal with the ugly fall-out.

In a new warts-and-all three part documentary series following police in the Swansea Bay area, beat officers say “domestics” are complicated by the instant nature of internet communication or texts.

Pc Gavin Williams, based at Pontardawe in the Swansea Valley, said people no longer had to pluck up the courage to confront somebody if they were angry or hurt.

He said: “In the past you would have to go up and say something to someone.

“But now all you have to do is send a text message.

“But it also helps us in a way because it’s all recorded.”

He added: “I’ve been to a couple of horrific domestic incidents, even a couple of stabbings.

“I think the worst ones are when they argue in front of the children. That’s really sad.”

Sergeant Justin Knight, based in Port Talbot, said: “I think if someone calls you a name on the internet then you should put a block on their account and let it go.

“But it’s hard, because for them it’s something really big.”

When asked if he has a Facebook account, Sergeant Knight said: “No. I would never go on Facebook. Ever!”

He said: “People think the police can sort everything out but we can’t. The best thing we can do is to speak to them and give them advice.

“This is what the job is all about these days. We get calls like this every day.”

The S4C show, 999: Y Glas (The Blues) starting tomorrow (Mon) (9pm, English subtitles available) follows officers as they attend a call from an unnamed young woman who claims she is being harassed by her ex-boyfriend.

She claims over the past week he has sent her more than 80 text messages despite asking him to leave her alone.

One in 12 calls received at the South Wales Police control room is an emergency to deal with “domestics”.

Statistics from Welsh Women’s Aid say two women a week are killed by their partners or ex-partners in England and Wales.

And in 2009-10 a total of 20,241 calls were made to the Wales Domestic Abuse Helpline with 97% coming from women.

Facebook has been at the centre of a number of domestic violence allegations.

Just this month a man from Taiwan was accused of beating to death a love rival who posted a “flirty” message on his wife’s Facebook page.

And in Croydon in 2008, a man was jailed for 14 years for hacking his wife to death when she changed her Facebook status to “single” four days after they split.

As well as portraying how police respond to domestic violence in Neath, Port Talbot and Swansea, the show looks at the policing of Barclays’ Premiership football matches at Swansea’s Liberty Stadium.

It also looks at the policing of Swansea’s busy “bright lights areas” including Wind Street which, in a Home Office incident reporting survey last year, was ranked the third worst street for violence in England and Wales.

The only two streets with more violent incidents, according to the figures based on December 2010 incidents, were Guildhall Walk in Portsmouth and Lower Twelfth Street in Milton Keynes.

Paula Hardy, chief executive of Welsh Women’s Aid, said of the social networking issue raised in the series: “Ultimately, domestic abuse is about power and control, with one partner (usually male) using any avenue available to gain and maintain control and dominance over his partner (usually female).

“With this in mind, it’s disturbing but not surprising perpetrators of domestic abuse have taken to using social media sites to monitor their partner’s activities, track their partner’s whereabouts and to post abusive comments.

“However, it‘s vital to point out social media does not cause domestic abuse.

“Domestic abuse was happening long before the age of the internet.

“Social media may present abusers with a new avenue for their behaviour but it’s the perpetrator, not the internet, who is responsible.”